Data Check automatically detects and highlights common humanitarian data errors including validation against CODs and other vocabularies from your HXL-tagged spreadsheet. You can access Data Check from:

  1. HDX via dataset pages (The “Validate with Data Check” option will appear under “More” button under HXL-tagged resources)
  2. HDX Tools, for datasets that exist outside of HDX. For this option, you should not use Data Check to process personal or otherwise sensitive data.

Data uploaded to HDX Tools is not retained within the HDX infrastructure, while data downloaded by HDX Tools from public URLs is cached only as long as necessary for processing.

You can access both versions of Data Check without being a registered user of HDX. For instructions on how to use Data Check, review the walkthrough slides below.

Data Check uses a generic schema that detects many kinds of common errors like possible spelling mistakes or atypical numeric values, but in some cases, an organisation will want to validate against its own more-specific rules. In that case, you can write your own, custom HXL schema and validate using the HXL Proxy (Data Check’s backend engine) directly. Information is available on these pages in the HXL Proxy wiki: HXL schemas, Validation page, and Validation service.